Small Is Beautiful (But Is It Useful?): Miniature Books Through the Ages

LOGOS 15.3 CRC 9/30/04 9:15 AM Page 144

LOGOS Small is beautiful (but is it useful?): Miniature books

through the ages

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^ The complete works of Shakespeare in forty volumes. Martin Znidersic Bound in linen. Titles in gold. Dedicated to Ellen Terry, the leading Shakespearian actress of her day. Published by David Bryce in Glasgow. The year: 1904. Nothing remarkable about all that – except that each volume measures only 54 x 37 mm – small enough to be classified as miniature books, Since graduating in economics from but not Bryce’s smallest. He had produced the

Bible three years earlier in an edition 45 x 30 mm

Ljubljana^ University in 1962, Martin ^

^ and, the year before that, Dr Johnson’s dictionary Znidersic has devoted his career to in a 28 x 20 mm editions; and back in 1896 the book-centered activities. From 1964 New Testament in an 18 x 15 mm edition (for the he was with Mladinska knjiga. In un-metricated reader approximately 0.7 x 0.6 1971 he joined Cankarjeva zalozba, inches), believed to be still the smallest New Testament in the world. of which he was Managing Director Miniature books were published even before from 1982-91. He then became a the codex. The earliest examples are clay tablets professor at the Faculty of Arts, from Mesopotamia in cuneiform writing, one of involved in publishing, bookselling which measures 28 x 26 mm. The most recent title and library science. In 1991 he in an exhibit I recently ran in Ljubljana was printed in Russia in 1996 – The Chameleon by became Editorial Director of the Anton Chekhov – measuring an incredible 0.9 x newly established Slovenska knjiga, 0.9 mm, and illustrated with two coloured draw- a function he still holds. Author of ings and a portrait of the author. (Needless to say

it is in the Guinness Book of World Records.)

200^ articles and several books, ^

^ The first miniature book printed on paper was Znidersic was also Chairman of the produced in China in 770 AD. It was called Slovene Publishers Association from Dharani of the Empress Shotoku and was printed in 1972-79 and President of the an edition of one million copies and distributed Association of Yugoslav Publishers among the temples. There are two fine examples of this work in the British Library. and Booksellers 1984-89. In 1999 The incunabula (ie, books printed in the 15th he received the Schwentner Prize century) include more than 100 miniatures, mainly for his lifelong achievements in religious books, including forty-two editions of The Slovene publishing. Book of Hours and thirty-seven Breviaries. By the Email: [email protected] end of the 15th century, printers throughout Europe were vying with each other to demonstrate their skills by publishing smaller and smaller books. There were no magnifying glasses or specta- cles in those days, which makes these books a

Small is beautiful (but is it useful?)

shell combined with silver, and silver filigree. The smallest of the 650 miniature books in the 18th century was T Orange Geslagt printed in Groningen in 1749 and measuring 17 x 11 mm. An 18th-century miniature innovation was the almanac, which remained popular throughout Europe. In England the London Almanac, started in 1690, appeared in miniature every year for more than 200 years. These almanacs were jewels in the art of printing. Lavishly bound, often in leather cases, they included illustrations. Miniature books for children began to appear in the 18th century. The few that have survived are highly priced and greatly valued by collectors. Miniature Bibles for children were called “Thumb Bibles”. In the 19th century, miniature book publishing really took off as technology, particularly the inventions of photography and lithography, began Long a collector of miniature books, the author made a to facilitate the art. Some European letter-cutters display of hundreds of them at the Slovenian National Book produced tiny letters suitable for miniature books. Fair in Ljubljana in November 2003. Photo is actual size. Miniatures began to be popular with collectors, who found a new use for them: travelling libraries. In 1802 J B Fournier Pére et Fils of Paris produced testimony to the keen eyesight of the typemakers forty-nine French classics and supplied them in a and setters. Binding, of course, was also done handy leather case. Between 1824 and 1832, Jones entirely by hand. and Company of London issued fifty-three English However, the small books of those days, classics in a wooden, leather-covered case which produced by famous printers such as Aldus Manu- closed like a single book. But these editions were tius in Venice, measured 12 cm or more, and would only small – 96 x 61 mm – not miniature. not be classified as miniatures by modern standards. The definition of miniature books has About 200 miniature books were printed in changed through the ages, but today there are two the 16th century. The smallest was an edition of generally accepted measures: The Anglo-Amer- The Book of Hours printed by Germain Hardouyn in ican standard is 76.2 x 76.2 mm (ie, 3 inches), 1516 with printed page surface of 38 x 20 mm. Most including covers. The second standard, valid in of the works in that century continued to be reli- Germany and all former socialist countries, gious. Among non-religious works were those of requires the trimmed book block to be no more Petrarch, Cicero, Dante and Ovid. than 100 x 100 mm. The number of miniature books printed The leading 19th-century British publisher of doubled in each of the following four centuries. The miniatures was William Pickering. Pickering’s 400 in the 17th century included the first American Diamond Classics were editorially excellent, and miniature – A Wedding Ring for the Finger (74 x 44 included engraved portraits of the authors and mm) printed by William Secker in 1690. The engraved title pages. Pickering published in Latin, smallest book of the 17th century measured 12 x 8 Greek and Italian as well as English and was the mm. Printed in Holland, it was called The Court of first to issue an edition of Shakespeare’s plays in Flowers. This held the record for several centuries. It miniature. Although his books are larger than was printed only on one side of the paper, and the today’s standard, they are, because of their quality sheets were pasted together. and beauty, widely considered as miniature books. The 17th century also saw innovations in The leading 19th-century miniature title was still binding, using materials such as lace or tortoise- the Bible (250 editions).